Team USA adds F Collison to senior national team

Aug 13, 2007 - 8:03 PM COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (Ticker) -- The United States senior national team added some muscle to its front line Monday, adding Seattle SuperSonics forward Nick Collison to the 16-man roster.

The 6-10 Collison will join Team USA for its late-summer training camp, which is scheduled to take place this week in Las Vegas.

National team managing director Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski will use the seven-day training session to finalize the 12-man squad which will compete in the FIBA Americas Championship 2007, which kicks off August 22.

"We are adding another 'big' in Nick Collison, and he'll participate in the August training," Colangelo said. "Nick was not available for the July 20-22 training because he was getting married.

Collison, 26, has participated on eight different levels of international basketball for Team USA.

"We're excited about his addition - he has had a lot of USA basketball experience," Colangelo said. "He's physical, he handles the pick and roll as well as anyone and he's been added to the senior national team for a reason."

Collison joins a squad which features NBA superstars LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard.

Team USA also announced Monday that Greg Oden, Kirk Hinrich and Shane Battier will not participate in the August training session and have been withdrawn from roster consideration for the FIBA Americas Championship.